Hollow spindle and method of making same



lApril 3, 1934i R. Dl TARR Er AL HOLLOW SPINDLE ANO METHOD 0F MAKING 'SAME Filed March 16. 1931 Eye . llmnvaroles:

Patented Apr. 3, '1934 HOLLOW SPINDLE AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME Roderic D. Tarr, Biddeford, and Earl M. Mason, Saco, Maine, assignors to Saco-Lowell Shops, Boston, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Application March 16,

8 Claims.

YThis invention relates to hollow spindles and to methods of making such spindles. Spindles of this type are much used in spinning yarn on paper tubes instead of on to wooden spools or bobbins.

The usual process of making hollow spindles consists in casting the whirl and the hollow spindle blade in one piece, 'drilling or boring the blade, turning down the exterior surfaces of the whirl and blade, and subsequen'lly mounting the whirl rigidly on a bearing blade. In addition to these operations it is also necessary to put the spindle through several trueing or straightening operations and to grind the external surface of the hollow blade. Because of the nature of these operations and of the material of which the whirl and the hollow blade are made, it has not been practical to perform any substantial part of the manufacturing operations in automatic machinery. The result is that spindles of this type are relatively expensive. Furthermore, the hollow spindle blades on which the thread bodies are mounted have customarily been made relatively thin in order to reduce their weight, so far as possible, and this fact, combined with the brittle nature of the cast iron of which they are made, has resulted in a construction which is relatively fragile and subject to considerable breakage. A further difficulty also is the fact that the cast iron necessarily is not entirely homogeneous so that the spindles rarely run true when completed. This has necessitated a balancing operation which usually, if not always, must be performed by hand and which has been of such a nature that it has added materially to the expense of manufacLure.

The present invention deals especially with the conditions above mentioned, it aims to improve both the construction and methods of manufacture of hollow spindles with a view to reducing the expense of manufacture and producing a superior construction.

The nature of the invention will be readily understood from the following description when read in connection with the accompanying drawing, and the novel features will be particularly pointed out in the appended claims,

In the drawing,

Figure 1 is a vertical sectional View of a spindle constructed in accordance with this invention and supported in a customary mounting;

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view of another form of hollow spindle blade which may be substituted for that shown in Fig. l; and

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a balancing weight.

1931, Serial No. 522,938

Referring rst to Fig. 1 it will be seen that the spindle there shown comprises a whirl 2, a bearing blade or supporting blade 3 on the upper end of which the whirl 2 is rigidly secured, and a tubular blade 4 rigidly secured to the whirl in axial alinement with the bearing blade 3, the h'ollow blade being designed to support the paper or fibre tube on which the yarn is to be wound.

According to the preferred method of manufacture all three of the parts 2, 3 and 4 are made independently of each other and subsequently are assembled. The whirl 2 may be made from a piece of steel bar in an automatic screw machine or turret lathe, all of the manufacturing operations being performed automatically. The bearing blade or supporting blade 3 may be manufactured accordng to the usual methods heretofore practiced. Instead of making the tubular blade 4 of cast iron, we prefer to make it of steel tubing, not only because the latter material is stronger but also because it is more homogeneous in composition and structure and lends itself to Lmore economical methods of manufacture.

The hollow blade may be made in any one of several ways. For example, it may be manufactured from a cylindrical steel tube blank of suitable length by turning down the outer surface to the desired taper and boring the tube internally to reduce the weight, the boring operation being performed with drills of different sizes to produce the stepped formation shown. The tube 4 is made in this manner. A further reduction in weight may be effected by reaming the tube 4 internally with a tapered reamer and such a blade is shown at 5 in Fig. 2. A satisfactory hollow blade also can be made from steel tubing of uniform diameter and thickness of wall by subjecting a blank of suitable length to rolling operations or by swaging it in dies which will shape it to approximately the desired taper.

Subsequently the blade may be turned or ground, if necessary, to produce the desired degree of accuracy. The finished tube produced by the swaging method will look substantially like that shown in Fig. 2.

According to the preferred method of assembling the parts of the spindle, the whirl 2 first is mounted on the bearing blade 3. This may be accomplished by forcing the whirl on to the upper end portion of the blade under heavy pressure in a manner similar to that which has been customary heretofore in the manufacture of spindles. Next the hollow blade 4, or any equivalent blade, is forced on to the projection or sleeve 7 which extends from the upper end "ifi of the whirl 2, this sleeve and the lower end or base of the hollow blade being made of such dimensions as to produce a good nt. It is necessary to secure the hollow blade rigidly tothe whirl and this preferably is accomplished by soldering or sweating the two parts together, or producing some other type of fused union between them. For this purpose a hard solder is more suitable than the more common soft solder. According to the preferred practice both the outer surface of the projection or sleeve 'I and also the inner surface of the lower end of the hollow blade 4 are tinned or coated with solder.

Later the blade 4 is heated to a temperature.

sufficient to melt the coating of solder and, while the blade is maintained at this temperature, it is forced on to the projection or sleeve 7 of the whirl. There is sufficient residual heat in the blade to melt the solder on the outer surface of the projection l and the parts finally are secured permanently together partly by the action of the solder and partly, also, by the shrinking of the blade on the projection 7. Both the whirl and the blade 4 should be held in the desired coaxial relationship while the whirl cools sumciently to cause the solder to set.

Subsequently the spindle may be finished in any desired manner. Usually the finishing operations include the polishing of the whirl and spindle, straightening the spindle and balancing it. Due to the fact that the blade and whirl are made of steel, which is substantially more homogeneous than cast iron, a much smaller percentage of the spindles will be found to be unbalanced to any substantial degree than are the usual prior iron constructions.

We have also found that the balancing operation can be materially facilitated by mounting a weight eccentrically in the upper end of the blade 4 and adjusting the weight so as to compensate for any unequal distribution of the weight of the spindle about its axis. This'balancing weight preferably is given the form of a cap or plug 9 which ts tightly in the upper end of the blade 4 and has a hole 10 drilled eccentrically into or through it. In performing the balancingoperation the spindle usually is mounted in a suitable bearing, is brought up to speed, and the amount by which it is out of balance is noted by the tester. The side which is unbalanced also is marked. The workman or tester then adjusts the plug 9 so as to bring its heavier side into position to compensate for the unbalancing of the spindle. He then brings the spindle up to speed again and notes the difference in results. If necessary a further adjustment of the weight 9 is made, and the operations just described are repeated until the spindle runs smoothly. Caps or plugs 9 of various lengths and weights are provided. With a little experience the testers become v ery skillful in selecting and adjusting these weights to balance the spindles properly and make them run correctly. When the weight or plug has been properly adjusted so that the spindle runs true, it is v'permanently secured in its adjusted position by a pin, solder, or in any other convenient manner. This method has been found in practice to reduce materially the time and expense required to correctly balance the spindles.

spindles of this construction are superior to the cast `iron type of spindle heretofore commonly used since they are more economical to manufacture, are less liable to be broken, and are more uniform in operation. They also lend themselves to the use of automatic machines in performing certain of the manufacturing operations which materially reduces the manufacturing expense.

While we have herein shown and described a preferred embodiment of our invention, it will be understood that the invention may be embodied in other forms without departing from the spirit or scope thereof.

Having thus described our invention, what we desire to claim as new is:

1. That improvement in methods of manufacturing hollow spindles which consists in making a whirl, making a hollow tapered spindle blade and soldering and shrinking said blade on said whirl.

2. That improvement in methods of manufacturinghollow spindles which consists in making a whirl, making a tubular spindle blade and a bearing blade, securing said whirl rigidly on said bearing blade, subsequently securing said spindle blade and whirl together by sweating one to the other, and later balancing the spindle.

3. That improvement in methods of manufacturing hollow spindles which consists in making a whirl, making a tubular spindle blade, subsequently securing said blade and whirl together by sweating one to the other, mounting a small weight eccentrically in said blade in position to balance the spindle and securing the weight in said position.

4. That improvement in methods of manufacturing hollow spindles which consists in making a whirl, making a tubular spindle blade and a bearing blade, securing said whirl rigidly on said bearing blade, and subsequently securing said hollow blade and said whirl together by sweating them together.

5. That improvement in methods of manufacturing hollow spindles which consists in providing a spindle whirl blank, machining said blank to produce a whirl having a projection at one end thereof, providing a tubular spindle blade blank, shaping said blank into a hollow tapered spindle blade having a base adapted to fit on said projection, subsequently assembling said blade and whirl with the blade centered on said projection, and sweating said blade and whirl together in said relationship.

6. A hollow spindle comprising a hollow tapered spindle blade, a whirl having a projection extending from the upper end thereof into the lower end of said blade, and a soldered ,union between said projection and blade.

'7. A hollow spindle comprising a whirl, a tubular spindle blade soldered to said whirl, and a balancing weight secured in the upper end of said blade and eccentrically disposed with reference to the axis of said blade.

8. A hollow spindle comprising a steel whirl, a bearing blade on the upper end of which said whirl is rigidly secured, and a hollow tapered steel spindle blade soldered on the upper end of said whirl in axial alinement with the whirl and said bearing blade.

. RODERIC D. TARE.

E. M. MASON. 

